Health Information Management

Topic: Consumers to gain greater insight into local hospital performance on enhanced Hospital Compare Web site

HIM Connection, September 2, 2008

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If you want information on mortality measures for pneumonia or measures for hospital care of children, look no further than the Hospital Compare Web site—a popular tool that CMS initiated in March 2005 to assist individuals in making healthcare decisions. The Web site now includes this information to help consumers make informed decisions regarding where to receive care, according to an August 20 CMS press release.

"With these new enhancements, consumers and health care providers will be able to look at individual hospital mortality scores.  We hope that this new information will cement the Web site’s role as a key driver in improving the quality and reliability of care in the nation’s hospitals," said CMS Acting Administrator Kerry Weems in the press release.

By publicly reporting this data, CMS hopes that patients will feel empowered with information that they can use to engage their local hospitals and physicians in active discussions regarding quality of care, the press release stated.

CMS had also added patient experience data earlier this year, causing the number of page views to jump from an average of 600,000 to more than 2.5 million per month. Page views for this year to date have totaled more than 20 million.

The addition of the measures for pneumonia and hospital care for children bring the total number of measures available on the Web site to 26 process of care measures, three outcome of care measures, two children’s asthma care measures, and 10 patient experience of care measures. Hospital Compare also contains information about the number of certain elective hospital procedures provided to patients and what Medicare pays for those services.

To view the press release, click here.

 



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